Chelsea are reportedly seeking to borrow £500m to fund the building of their new stadium, as opposed to owner Roman Abramovich stumping up the cash.
As with all the top European clubs, it’s becoming increasing crucial to either expand current stadiums or move into new homes to generate more revenue and compete with their rivals.
The club have received planning permission for their new 60,000-seater redevelopment of Stamford Bridge, but they haven’t yet confirmed how they intend on funding their ambitious project.
According to The Times, despite the fact that Abramovich has spent more than £1 billion on Chelsea since purchasing the club in 2003, the board are said to be pursuing other options rather than seeing him pay the entire bill for the project.
It has yet to be decided on how they will finance it, but borrowing such large sums comes with its own problems, and so they’ll have to carefully analyse which is the best strategy moving forward to push ahead with the crucial plans.
There’s no denying that those plans look stunning and will undoubtedly benefit the reigning Premier League champions in the long run, but it’s the short term spend and burden that will have to be assessed.
Naming rights, advanced season ticket sales and hospitality packages as well as other commercial agreements will help raise the money required for funding the project too, but it’s strange that Abramovich isn’t stepping in given Financial Fair Play regulations don’t apply to infrastructure and capital investment.